How many times have you asked someone how they were doing, and received the response, “good, yeah, just really, really busy…”
How often do you hear people comparing stories of hurried lives, and overwhelming schedules as a way of connecting? They will roll their eyes, and maybe laugh about how “crazy” life is during this particular chapter. They might share a joke about needing a glass of wine, or a vacation in order to relax.
Anxiety Has Been Normalized in Our Lives
These responses, and this way of normalizing overwhelm and exhaustion, are everywhere.
I am certainly guilty of buying into this cultural norm, and I am an anxiety counselor! So trust me, this is something that affects us all. My response to the question of how I was has been “busy” more times than I care to admit.
And yet, I have compassion for anyone who is caught up in this way of living. I have compassion for myself, as this is what our culture would tell us is the normal way of living.
Hidden Anxiety
Anxiety, masked as business and overwhelm, is the way we are told we should live if we are to be productive people in a world that never stops moving.
When you can’t sleep, you are constantly tired, or feel like your to-do list is never (EVER) going to shorten, this creates anxiety.
When you have more tasks than hours in your day; when you never feel like you have done enough, and when the bar keeps rising no matter how hard you try . . . this creates anxiety.
Cycles of Wisdom
Our culture has lost sight of our need for rest. It has forsaken the wisdom of cycles. The idea that there is time for productivity (think of the summer harvest) and also a natural time for dormancy, and rest (think of the winter) is lost in our modern culture that would have us produce 24/7, 365 days a year. We humans do not work with our natural rhythms, and this – well, you guessed it – creates anxiety.
Steps to Overcome Anxiety in Your Daily Life
As an anxiety specialist, I know it can feel hard to even know where to start. Let me give you a few easy steps to begin to shift your relationship with overwhelm and anxiety.
First, be gentle and compassionate with yourself if you realize you are caught up in this cycle. We can not change anxiety by pushing harder or being unkind. It will only make you more anxious.
Next, ask yourself, where can I pull back – if even a little bit? What can I put down, or leave for a moment, so that I can create some space for rest or relaxation. Even if you can only think of one or two things, that is a start.
Moving Forward
Anxiety is not something that you “fix”, it is something that you manage by changing your relationship with how you spend your energy (behavior), how you perceive yourself and your relationship to life (thoughts), and how you relate to your purpose here on earth.
If you begin to see yourself as a being, instead of focusing on all you are doing (or aren’t doing in many cases), you start to create space for stillness and that pause is everything when it comes to managing anxiety. You change the rhythm of your nervous system (the physical source of anxiety), and this can make immense changes in bringing a sense of safety and calm into the body/mind.
If you want to learn more about anxiety counseling, click the contact button below and fill out your information or call 678-999-7605 and schedule a brief 15 minute consultation to learn more about how I might be able to help you.
